


Fragrance

by felicitatem



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Drama, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romance, Soulmate AU, Soulmates, angst with happy ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-10 21:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10447629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/felicitatem/pseuds/felicitatem
Summary: "There was more, there was so much more. Yuuri couldn’t compare the smell to anything. It was just like his mother had said. There was too much beauty and too little words in all the languages in the world to embody the invigorating, terrifying, but addicting fragrance of his soulmate."Everyone has a fragrance that only their soulmates can smell, and from a young age, Yuuri Katsuki has longed to catch the scent of his soulmate and someone to call his own. However, Yuuri never expected that the enchanting perfume of his soulmate (and idol) to cause him heartbreak and pain, but simultaneously inspire his own beautiful fairytale towards loving Victor and learning to truly love himself.





	

The top notes of perfume are the most volatile and sensitive to change. They serve as the introduction to the story in the fragrance.  
Captivating and fleeting, top notes only lingers for a few moments before disappearing. 

__

His mother said that his father smelled like dried bamboo and incense.  
Yuuri had asked out of sheer curiosity one evening, when Hiroko was gathering the last dirty plates after dinner. Yuuri never quite forgot the the soft expression that washed over his mother’s face when she recounted the first time she caught the scent of her soulmate.  
“I was going to treat myself to a popsicle after the exams. When I walked into Shunichi’s (though you’d call him Mr. Yamazaki) shop, I saw an employee a bit older than me working there. He was very cute. That was when the smell hit me. I can’t really compare it to anything, but if I had to, it’d be dried bamboo and incense. Similar to the smell in the interior of the pagoda we went to when I took you and Mari to China.”  
Yuuri remembers the light blush that quickly dusted across his mother’s face. Sharing one’s first encounter with one’s soulmate was an act of absolute trust and intimacy.  
“I forgot which one of us looked up first. Shunichi must’ve noticed both of our expressions and quickly introduced the boy to me. From there on, we fell in love and after I graduated, he proposed. Then we had Mari, and of course, you, Yuuri.”  
Yuuri stared in awe at his mother. He reverently wondered what it was like to meet his soulmate. What would they smell like? Pineapple jello? Chocolate?  
His mother told him that it would be something he would enjoy smelling.  
“You’d like it, of course. I had a friend who described her soul mate's scent as similar to shinachiku. It sounds unappealing to me but it turns out she loves that smell.”  
Her reassurance only added fire to Yuuri’s desire to catch even the slightest whiff of his soulmate.  
___

It was tough being around Yuuko and Nishigori at times.  
After all, the two had the blessing of finding each other from very early on. Although their status as soul mates never prevented either of them from yelling at each other, it was painfully evident to Yuuri that the two shared a special bond.  
He saw it in the way Nishigori would pout and look the other way to hide a blush.  
He heard it in the way Yuuko’s voice would soften gradually when complaining about how Nishigori didn’t make enough time for her.  
Even though the two never left him out of their conversations and always included him in their skating activities, Yuuri still felt lonely all the same.  
He wondered what it was like to hold someone whose fragrance would forever bewitch his soul.  
__

High school was especially tough on Yuuri. By then, hearing exclamations of  
“I found him!” or “I can’t believe that my soulmate is so beautiful!” became more and more frequent. To Yuuri, it was an incessant reminder of his loneliness.  
His parents reassured him that he’d find his soulmate in university.  
“That’s where most kids find out anyway”, they would say.  
Then they would quickly add that even if Yuuri were never to meet his soulmate, he could still find happiness. They would ramble off a list of anecdotes about the distant people they knew who never married their soulmates but were still very fulfilled.  
Yuuri tried to keep an open mind but every optimistic thought lead feverishly back to his desire of meeting his soulmate.  
High school was also the first time his parents took him to the World Championships, where his idol, Victor Nikiforov, was going to compete in.  
Unfortunately, it was also the time Yuuri had his first major panic attack in public.  
__

2010 World Figure Skating Championships, Turin

“Amazing! Victor Nikiforov, at age 20, has demolished his second World Record in this season!”  
The applause was thunderous. Everyone was on their feet, whistling and chanting Victor’s name, as the results of his free program were announced. Yuuri found himself leaping up and bursting into tears because of the immense pride he had for his idol that blazed in him like fireworks.  
“He really is something, isn’t he, Yuuri?”  
His mother laughed over the noise, tightly hugging a sobbing Yuuri in her arms. Although she didn’t know much about skating, she was beginning to understand exactly why Yuuri beg her for more allowance so he could buy more of Victor’s posters and magazine interviews. The silver-haired boy looked as if he was born for the ice. Unrivalled in grace and precision among the rest of his competitors. 

Upon exiting the arena after the Yuuri’s cheeks began to ache from how much he had smiled that night. His felt dizzy, but he identified it as the good kind of dizzy he had often felt after finally perfecting a jump after hours of practice and a dozen bruises.  
In fact, Yuuri had never felt more inspired to skate. He had seen his idol but now, oh now, how he wanted to skate next to him.  
Elated and ecstatic, Yuuri felt as if he was floating on a cloud of pure contentment.  
“Mom, thanks so much for taking me. I promise I’ll help out more with cleaning-

That’s when it hit him. 

The impact was so strong that it silenced Yuuri mid-sentenced and wrenched out any remaining thoughts in him.  
Roses.  
That was his first thought. Roses. Wild roses. Like the type he had smelled when he went to a garden with Yuuko and Nishigori last August, as the third-wheel. It didn’t smell like the artificial rose fragrances that was popular among his classmates. No. It was much more soft and natural. Like a rose that had freshly burst open overnight, preciously innocent and blooming with vitality.  
But it wasn’t roses. It was also like the forests he hiked in Hasetsu during winter for exercise. An immense, boundless sea of white where the smell of frost and the earth mixed with the icy wind. It was a fragrance that evoked an image of purity but one that undeniably spoke of raw power and untameable beauty.  
There was more, there was so much more. Yuuri couldn’t compare the smell to anything. It was just like his mother had said. There was too much beauty and too little words in language to embody the invigorating, terrifying, but addicting perfume of his soulmate.  
Soulmate.  
His soulmate.  
Yuuri immediately spun around, craning his neck outwards to catch where the source of the fragrance. He felt his legs quake and his heart nearly bursting from a pastiche of overpowering emotions that was mostly dominated by anticipation.  
His soulmate was here and was probably a fan of skating!  
“Holy crap! It’s Victor Nikiforov!”  
A girl shrieked. The hundreds of bodies remaining outside the stadium turned toward what the girl pointed shakingly at.  
There stood Victor in the night, illuminated by the streetlights and blushing radiantly. Clad in a grey tracksuit, Victor wore a hat but it did little to conceal his shining hair and mesmerizing beauty. He had probably planned to sneak out to celebrate his victory.  
However, Victor had frozen in place and his eyes were wide open in shock. 

Yuuri felt his legs cave underneath him as he realized where his soulmate’s smell came from. His entire throat burned and he could feel his head throbbing painfully. Panic coursed through his body and Yuuri felt as if his veins were simultaneously burning and freezing at once.  
He felt as if someone was lacing his organs and tightening the hold on the wire by the second.  
This can’t be it. This can’t be it. Help. Help! Mom!  
Yuuri screamed silently, unable to move or speak.  
Recognizing the familiar look of fear and helplessness on her son’s face, Hiroko acted quickly and dragged Yuuri towards one of the taxis lining the sidewalk. There were too many people here. Yuuri needed to be somewhere quiet.

That’s when Victor acted.  
From inside the taxi, Yuuri saw him push aside the throngs of his clamoring fans that had surrounded him with uncharacteristic force and impatience, running to an open space and pointing his nose towards the night sky like a bloodhound.  
His eyes looked wild and lost, but they reflected a kind of certainty Yuuri had identified in his own eyes as well.  
He knew Victor had caught the scent too.  
Yuuri’s scent.  
His soulmate’s scent.  
Yuuri tore his eyes away from Victor’s lone silhouette as his mother finished telling the taxi driver the address to their hotel.  
Taxi drove off into the cooling night and the crowd hungrily swallowed Victor’s figure once more.  
__

Why did he have a panic attack?  
Yuuri didn’t want to think about it. He kept the events of that night to himself. Hiroko Katsuki didn’t pry her son for answers and passed off his attack as the result of being too overwhelmed.  
Although it had been his fantasy to have Victor as a soulmate, the reality of it was overwhelming and painful and exhausting.  
He was Victor Nikiforov. The world was at his feet and heaven was in his hands. He was successful, confident, beloved, and worshipped. Everyone wanted him. The comments section of every tabloid article and youtube video of him raged with the anticipation of finding out just what kind of prodigy and human god would be Victor Nikiforov’s soulmate. Everyone had high hopes, including Yuuri. And Yuuri knew that he would never be able to meet the world’s expectations. That he would never be a fitting “happily ever after” to Victor’s fairytale life and legendary status.  
The harsh realization of this fact pulsed inside of Yuuri’s gut day and night, threatening to dissolve the remaining strands of self-esteem he had preserved.  
But the razor-sharp sadness of keeping what should have been joyful news to himself was even more defined.  
There were nights where Yuuri felt himself being wrenched under the colossal tides of his dark emotions and thoughts, unable to breathe and finding that he had dampened his own pillow with tears he didn’t know he was shedding.  
__

During interviews in the aftermath of that night, Victor would admit that he had met his soulmate, but he still did not know who it was. The media globally broadcasted and wrote relentlessly on Victor’s enchanting “Cinderella” story. Fans from all over the world claimed to be his soulmate, pooling into online forums and their social media accounts. Some even went as far as to make up Victor’s scent.  
“Lilacs.”  
“Mango.”  
“Pinecones.”  
The list was unending, unique, and immensely anger-provoking.

Because Yuuri knew the truth.  
But he also knew he’d never have enough courage to share it.  
Not even under a fake username or account.  
__

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone develops their ability to smell their soulmate at different times.  
> Usually, it develops during middle/high school, but some people, like Yuuko and Nishigori, develops it slightly earlier. It is believed that soulmates develop this ability at the same time.  
> __
> 
> Thanks for reading this. I haven’t written a series since 2009 so please forgive me if I am rusty. Feedback is always nice and as I used to say on fanfiction.net, reviews make me happy.


End file.
